Environmental impact of fishing

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  • environmental impact of fishing
definition
  • Fishing may have various negative effects on the environment: effluent and waste from fish farms may damage wild fish, seals, and shellfish. Fish farmers use tiny quantities of highly toxic chemicals to kill lice: one overdose could be devastating. So-called by-catches, or the incidental taking of non-commercial species in drift nets, trawling operations and long line fishing is responsible for the death of large marine animals and one factor in the threatened extinction of some species. Some fishing techniques, like the drift nets, yield not only tons of fish but kill millions of birds, whales and seals and catch millions of fish not intended. Small net holes often capture juvenile fish who never have a chance to reproduce. Some forms of equipment destroy natural habitats, for example bottom trawling may destroy natural reefs. Other destructive techniques are illegal dynamite and cyanide fishing.
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Abstract from DBPedia
    The environmental impact of fishing includes issues such as the availability of fish, overfishing, fisheries, and fisheries management; as well as the impact of industrial fishing on other elements of the environment, such as bycatch. These issues are part of marine conservation, and are addressed in fisheries science programs. According to a 2019 FAO report, global production of fish, crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic animals has continued to grow and reached 172.6 million tonnes in 2017, with an increase of 4.1 percent compared with 2016. There is a growing gap between the supply of fish and demand, due in part to world population growth. Fishing and pollution from fishing are the largest contributors to the decline in ocean health and water quality. Ghost nets, or nets abandoned in the ocean, are made of plastic and nylon and do not decompose, wreaking extreme havoc on the wildlife and ecosystems they interrupt. The ocean takes up 70% of the earth, so overfishing and hurting the marine environment affects everyone and everything on this planet. On top of the overfishing, there is a seafood shortage resulting from the mass amounts of seafood waste, as well as the microplastics that are polluting the seafood consumed by the public. The latter is largely caused by plastic-made fishing gear like drift nets and longlining equipment, that are wearing down by use, lost or thrown away. The journal Science published a four-year study in November 2006, which predicted that, at prevailing trends, the world would run out of wild-caught seafood in 2048. The scientists stated that the decline was a result of overfishing, pollution and other environmental factors that were reducing the population of fisheries at the same time as their ecosystems were being annihilated. Many countries, such as Tonga, the United States, Australia and Bahamas, and international management bodies have taken steps to appropriately manage marine resources. Reefs are also being destroyed by overfishing because of the huge nets that are dragged along the ocean floor while trawling. Many corals are being destroyed and, as a consequence, the ecological niche of many species is at stake.

    (Source: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Environmental_impact_of_fishing)